I swore that I would not do a high school AU. Yeah, I saw how well that turned out. I've kept the ages pretty ambiguous, but in my head, they're all at the appropriate s. (Heechul and Teuk are three years older than Hyuk, etc.) Also, I've also kept other pairings very vague (if there at all) so that you, dear reader, can infer which ever OTP makes you happy. 

 “How's school?”

 

There was silence for a moment, then finally a sigh. “It's okay, I guess, hyung.”

“So let me guess, you're still the nerdy math genius with an addiction to One Piece, who disappears every afternoon to presumably go home and you're getting picked on by the popular crowd?”

“Not all of them, hyung.” Lee Hyukjae sighed. How his oldest cousin managed to get every scrap of information from five words, he would never know. The phone connection hissed for a second. But then again, his oldest cousin was Kim Heechul – and Heechul could make a stone talk if he wanted.

“Oh?” Now Heechul sounded interested, which could be a good or bad thing, depending on how he looked at it. “Tell me who so I can make sure to leave them alone.”

“Hyung,” he almost whined. “Just let me handle it, okay? I've grown up and you don't have to always fight my battles for me.” There was dead silence for a long moment, and Hyukjae worried that he might have pissed off his cousin, who doted on him as though they were brothers. “Hyung, I'm sorry...”

“No, no, don't be Hyukjae-ah. Hyung knows that even baby cousins grow up, and not much I can do when I'm stuck in China for the next few months.” There was a pause. “I heard that smile through the phone, Hyukjae.”

There was no denying that. Hyukjae had a... very unique smile. He was rather embarrassed about his smile, since his gums always showed when he did smile fully, but since there was no one around, he didn't bother to hide it. “How is China, hyung? What's it like?”

“Loud and smelly,” Heechul complained, a small bite to his voice. “I hate not being able to converse with people clearly.”

“You should get Hankyung-hyung to help you with your Chinese,” Hyukjae teased, knowing that he was one of the few people that could get away with it.

There was a loud snort through the phone. “He's too busy trying to woo some girl that his parents introduced him to to help the rest of us.”

“Are you jealous, Heenim-hyung?”

“Me?! Hardly. This girl isn't nearly as beautiful as I am.”

Hyukjae couldn't contain the laugh. His hyung, the diva, being insulted that anyone would insinuate that a young woman was as pretty as what he was.

“What? You're saying that I'm not prettier than some girl Hankyung is trying to woo?!”

“No, hyung,” Hyukjae laughed. “I know far better than that!”

Heechul humphed over the phone. “You have far more sense than others, then. I have to go, manager-hyung is going to yell for us here in a minute.”

“All right hyung, you all will do well in China, I know it! Fighting!”

“Of course we will, brat. Hang on, Jungsu wants to talk to you.” There was a small shuffle as the phone was handed over, and Hyukjae could barely make out the words “I'm still your hyung,” before a new voice sounded over the line.

“Eunhyuk-ah!”

Hyukjae grinned at his nickname that management had suggested that he take on as his stage name. “Hi Teukie-hyung,” he greeted, using the elder's stage nickname. “How is China for you?”

“About the same for me as Heechul, but not nearly as annoying.” In the background, the manager yelled something incomprehensible. “Really quick, Eunhyuk-ah, you're one of the oldest trainees. Try and keep everyone working hard until we get back?”

“Of course hyung. Donghee and I are working hard in your absence.”

“Great! We'll be back before you know it.”

“I know, hyung. Do well in China! Fighting!”

“Fighting!” Jungsu repeated back before he hung up.

Pulling the phone away from his ear, Hyukjae sighed. The times he got to talk to the older men were far and few between, and he was grateful for every chance. Pushing his glasses back up, he cleared his recent calls list and made sure that his cousin's number wasn't anywhere on his phone. Since he was good with numbers, he had Heechul's phone number memorized and didn't see the wisdom in saving it to his phone.

Though Heechul had taken great pains to keep his relationship to Hyukjae a secret, there were still some fans who would stop at nothing in an attempt to gain access to one of their favorite celebrities, including digging up Heechul's little cousin and stealing his phone. All they would ever find on it was a boring picture of Luffy from One Piece as his background, and only five saved contacts – his mother and father were only for emergency purposes, and the other three were study partners from school.

He looked at the time and sighed. He'd taken precious time out from lunch break to talk to his cousin, and he knew he'd have to be fast if he wanted to get anything to eat before ten that night. Shoving his phone back into his backpack, he shouldered it and sprinted back into the building.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

 

Three weeks later, Hyukjae was again talking to Heechul. “Hyung, you know I can't fight – I'd be suspended from schooling, and that might cause me to be dropped as a trainee.”

“They would never...” Heechul seethed.

“Hyung, they can't treat me any differently just because you've debuted and you're my cousin. That wouldn't be fair.”

Heechul was in a mood, and Hyukjae wondered what happened with his cousin. “! If they didn't have us working every ing day, I would fly back to Korea and give those ing idiots a swift kick in the goddamn !” The tirade went on for another couple of minutes before Heechul seemed to run out of far more inventive cursing than simply repeating the word '.'

“Hyung, it's really not that bad.”

“Those idiots are picking on my dongsaeng, it's as bad as I want to let it get,” Heechul growled. “Give me their names.”

“Hyung, I can handle it,” he protested.

“That's what you told me almost a month ago, Lee Hyukjae.”

“I promise, hyung, it's nothing more than a few people teasing me! And if Donghae's around, they don't bother.”

There was silence for a second, and Hyukjae winced. He'd been helping one of the soccer team's players with tutoring on the weekends, and the first time Donghae had spoken up in his defense, most of them had quietly left him alone. He didn't want his overprotective cousin – or his band mates, who could be far more overprotective – to know about Donghae. “Who is this Donghae person?”

“Hyung, don't worry about it, honestly. The biggest problem I have right now is keeping Kim seonsaeng-nim from signing me up for the annual talent show.”

“Yah! Why haven't you done it for the last two years, you idiot?”

“Hyung...”

Heechul sighed. “Honestly, Hyukjae. Stop being so shy and timid! We'll be getting back to Korea just about that time, and I've convinced the president of the company to come and watch you, and you being outside the studio is a bonus. There's a rumor of him wanting to put together a new group, and you've been a trainee for how long now?”

“Five years,” he mumbled.

“Right, five years now. Were you planning on staying as a trainee forever, letting those with far less talent go on?”

“No, hyung.”

“Good. The president hinted that Donghee is also being looked at for this new group.”

“What's it going t be named? 'Korea's Most Unattractive?'”

“Lee Hyukjae!” Heechul screeched into the phone.

He dropped his head forward with a sigh. Donghee wasn't ugly, not at all, he was just heavier than most other idol trainees, but moved with a fluidity and grace that surprised many. Hyukjae, though, he did own a mirror and felt that his looks were abysmal. His jaw was too sharp, he only had single eyelids, and then there was the whole issue with his body – he was too thin and wiry. “Sorry, hyung.”

“You'd best be, you brat. Donghee is still older than you, and stop trying to be as beautiful as what I am. You just need a couple more years to grow into your own face.” Heechul sighed, and his voice dropped to his more natural tenor. “Hyuk, please do this for your hyungs. We all want to see you succeed, understood?”

“Yes,” he whispered. The times when Heechul became serious enough to try and boost his confidence were extremely rare, and each time touched him deeply. “But I don't really have that great of a singing voice hyung, you know that.”

“No but you don't trip over your own words when rapping like Hankyung does. Look, just trust me on this. Stop being Lee Hyukjae for one day and introduce Eunhyuk to the world. Even if you just dance, it will make an impression.”

Hyukjae paused for a moment, then sighed. If Heechul had already mentioned his plight to the others – which he almost certainly had – then if he told Heechul no on the idea of the talent performance, then he could expect a call from Jungsu next, and no one told the older man no, especially not when he had that emotional quiver in his voice. And his dream was to eventually make it to the point where he was famous, despite his looks. “All right, hyung, I'll do it.”

“Sign up for it today. I still have contacts in your school, Hyukjae, and I'll call tomorrow to make sure that you're listed.”

“Hyung!”

“Hyukjae, I'm doing this for your own good. Now tell me about this Donghae person.”

“Hyung, I need to eat at some point...”

“So quit stalling and start talking. Who is this kid?”

Knowing that it was pointless to argue, Hyukjae relayed the relevant information. Lee Donghae, his age, just enough months between them to have Donghae in the year below him. Soccer player, friendly, outgoing, popular, considered one of the best looking students at school, yet at times absurdly childish and innocent. He also needed help in math. His favorite movie was Finding Nemo for some absurd reason, and the first time Donghae had heard others picking on Hyukjae, had publicly said that Donghae found him 'kind of handsome.'

Heechul listened silently. “I like this kid already. Do you have a crush on him or something, Hyuk?”

“What?!” he spluttered and almost fell off of the wall he was sitting on.

“God, Hyukjae, I'm not deaf, you're practically writing an ode to him. And remember who you're talking to, brat. I above all know that you're not exactly completely heteroual.”

Hyukjae felt the tips of his ears burn. “Hyung,” he hissed.

There was an exasperated sigh on the other end. “Fine, stay in denial! Even Jongwoon has noticed.”

“Oh God,” he moaned covering his face. He would never be able to look any of Heechul's band mates in the eye again.

“Oh relax, you big crybaby. It's not a huge deal to any of us, but you'll have to hide it a bit better once you become famous.”

“I'm hanging up now, hyung.”

The last sound he heard was Heechul's cackling laughter. That had definitely been one of the more embarrassing conversations with his hyung. Sprinting back into the school, he hoped that he had enough time to get anything to eat.

He was munching on the last strawberry parfait that the snack counter had when he bumped – quite literally – into Donghae.

Donghae's wide smile stretched across his face. “Hey Hyukjae!”

Swallowing a half-chewed lump of strawberry, he sent the younger a small smile. “Hi Donghae, how are you?”

“I'm good! Are you free this weekend? I have a huge test coming up and I need to do well on it.”

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